Welcome to Environmental Health & Safety
Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) is an administrative unit that assists University units in meeting their responsibility to protect the environment and to provide a safe and healthful place for employment and learning.
EH&S employs about 100 people who are spread across the UW Seattle campus in multiple locations.
We have six sections organized around the services we provide.
Updated UW Lab Safety Manual now available
The December 2021 version of the UW Laboratory Safety Manual (LSM) is now available for download or printing. It's time for principal investigators to review, bookmark, or print a copy of the updated LSM and make it available for all staff and students in your lab.
2021 Laboratory Safety Awards & Innovations Event
You are invited to attend EH&S’s biannual 2021 Laboratory Safety Awards & Innovations Event to celebrate the work being done to enhance the culture of safety on UW’s campuses. This virtual event will take place online on December 15 at 1 p.m.
October 20, 2021 IBC Meeting Minutes
Work safely with human materials
Human source materials, including human cell lines, blood, tissues and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) are commonly used biohazards in UW research labs. Potentially infectious human materials can contain bloodborne pathogens (BBP) such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B and C viruses.
September 15, 2021 IBC Meeting Minutes
Evaluation for Diving Safety
New Notice of Cleaning and Decontamination Form
A new Notice of Cleaning and/or Decontamination Form was published in August 2021 to replace the prior decontamination form. The new form contains expanded information to include cleaning as well as decontamination procedures for lab instruments, equipment, appliances, and furniture.
National Biosafety Month 2021: Wear a Lab Coat to Protect Yourself
October is National Biosafety Month, a time to focus on your lab’s biosafety policies and procedures. For 2021, EH&S would like labs to focus on the importance of wearing lab coats. Lab coats are an important barrier between your skin or clothes and any hazards that you work with in the lab. Not only do lab coats protect you from exposure, they also help prevent you from transporting laboratory contamination home to your family, friends and pets.